


Hufflepuff twins

by Campodesol_2000



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Clumsy Characters, F/M, Fluff and Crack, Getting Together, Getting to Know Each Other, Romantic Fluff, Teaching muggle stuff to wizards, Teeny tiny bit of angst in later chapters, all the references, so many references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-15 00:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16922895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Campodesol_2000/pseuds/Campodesol_2000
Summary: When two hufflepuff twins bump into the Marauders, the romantic tension quickly becomes palpable. This story shows the development of their relationships with all the ups and downs.





	1. Jane

**Author's Note:**

> Heee, every chapter has the title of the person from whose POV it is written. Enjoy!
> 
> Part of the credits go to my amazing sister whithout whom this work would have been boring.

I plop down on the chair and throw my bag to the nearest bookcase. “ _I hate this weather.”_

   “Well, good afternoon to you too,” Remus says, undisturbed. I roll my eyes and grab a random book out of my bag. “That’s the only thing you wanted to say? What a conversation starter.”

   I stop moving and turn around slowly to look at him. “You’re supposed to say more than that. It’s not my fault you didn’t answer my-”

   “How am I supposed to answer a sentence? You didn’t ask a question, Janie.” He turns the page and looks up. His legs are on the table, one over the other, and his hair is tangled. “You’re late. I thought we were going to study at _five,_ not _six._ Even a toddler would know the difference,” he teases.

   “Don’t call me Janie. It’s Jane, ass. And sorry I’m late, a fifth year was bullying a first. We had to go to miss Sprout to fix it,” I say, slapping his arm lightly. “And it’s snowing outside. I can’t run when it’s slippery. You know that.”

   “You can’t run at all,” he mumbles under his breath.

   “ _Excuse me?”_  I hiss. Now I slap his arm harshly. “Look who’s saying.” A small smile tugs at the corners of his lips when he turns another page. “Just shut up, Remus. I still need to do that assignment.”

   “Me too.”

   I arch an eyebrow. “Why the hell did you wait?”

   “Because we made a deal. We would do it together, remember?” He sets down his legs and shoves his chair closer to the table. “Come on. It’s just a couple of exercises. We’re going to be fine. We still have… like… An hour for ten questions.” He lifts up his white quill and puts his elbow on the table, pursing his lips while looking at the paper in front of him.

   “You’re not reading this, are you?” I ask after a while.

   He bursts out laughing. “Of course not. But I’m _looking_ at it. That’s more than you, Janie.”

   I scowl. He has called me that since the moment we met, just because he didn’t catch my name right. Later on, he said he found it too cute to stop. I can still remember the serene, brooding look on his face when we first met each other during the journey to Hogwarts, like he felt he didn’t belong there. At first, he didn’t seem to really notice anyone. That was until we had to patrol together. When we got to the cabin where his friends were sitting, he told them to stop fooling around with the candy wrappers. They didn’t take him seriously, so I may or may not have have hexed the wrappers a bit so that they would attack them. Since then, we have been best friends. I look outside. It’s still snowing, as it has been for days. Snow is nice when you look at it, but being outside when you’re in a hurry, that’s a disaster.

   “Oi! Janie! We still have to do this!” Remus calls out, poking me in the side, which makes me jump. I give a squeal.

   “Was that necessary?” I ask. “You don’t have the right to do this every time you want to!”

   “Yes, I have.” He smirks and leans towards me. “You know you like it, Janie,” he whispers in my ear, making my cheeks turn red. “Just admit it.” Then, without a warning, he sits up straight and writes down his name on the paper. “Great. We can start. That’s a first.” My jaw has dropped. When he looks at me again, he looks at me oddly. “You okay, Janie? You look a bit bedazzled.”

   “Yeah, I’m fine,” I say, making it no big deal. My friends are convinced I like him, and vice versa. I, on the other hand, am convinced he absolutely isn’t interested. How could he be? Come on, be real. I clear my throat. “Where were we?”

   “I think you were going to confess something.” He leans forward once again. “Weren’t you?”

   My hand hits his face within seconds. “Yeah, right. Keep on dreaming, loverboy.” With a satisfied smile on my face, I turn to the exercises. “Wow, this is easy. That’s just writing down what is told in the book.”

   “Mr. Lupin, miss Rames?” someone asks. I tense when I recognize the voice of the librarian. _Shit. Now we’re going to get it._

   “Yes?” Remus asks, turning around.

   “If you can’t be quiet, you will have to leave.”

   It’s quiet for a few seconds. Maybe Remus is trying to form an answer, maybe he’s just staring at the librarian like she’s lost her mind. “Alright. Come one, Janie, let’s go.” _What? Is that really his answer?_ “We can continue elsewhere, where don’t have to be quiet.” He picks up the books and rolls of parchments, throws both our bags over his shoulders and grabs my hand. “Let’s go,” he adds finally, dragging me out of the library.

   “I’m sorry!” I call to the librarian, but before I can hear an answer, Remus pulls me out of the door. “Where are we going to go?” I ask him sceptically. “The library was the only place where it was quiet.”

   He shrugs. “Your dorm, maybe? I don’t know, is it quiet there?”

   “My _dorm?_ Have you gone nuts?”

   He looks genuinely shocked. “I meant your common room,” he says quickly. “Common room, not dorm. I swear.”

   Laughing, I shake my head. “You’re lucky you’re cute. Otherwise I would definitely think you’re creepy.” _Hold on, did I really just say that? ‘You’re lucky you’re cute’? What is he going to think of that?_

“Is it quiet in your common room?” he asks, letting it slip, thank God.

   I shrug. “Depends. When my friends are around, no. But, being two prefects, we could send them away. Yours?”

   He presses his lips together and shakes his head. “Usually not. Trust me, you don’t want to meet the other Marauders. They’re… much to handle. You can just hang around with me, you’re not ready for them yet.” He starts walking to the kitchens, where the Hufflepuff common room lies. “I can barely keep up with them. I don’t think it’s a good idea to work in my common room. We would have to go to my dorm, and they would think we were hitting it off. _Not_ a good plan.”

   I giggle. “If you say so.” In silence, we walk further. When the portrait opens and when he wants to walk down the stairs, I stop him. “Stop.”

   He turns around, a small frown on his face. “What is it? Is there a monster downstairs?”

   “A few.”

   “What?”

   “Well… I might have to warn you for my friends. They’re not as much to handle as your friends, I suppose, but uhm… they tend to… humiliate me in front of everyone and to… tell inappropriate things. Let’s keep it on that.”

   Remus’ face lights up. “Really?” he asks, dragging out the vowel. He wiggles his eyebrows. “Things like what?”

   I inhale deeply. “Secrets, mostly. Some made up shit.” I shrug, laughing. “Really, sometimes I wonder why I still hang out with them. Same as with you, actually. But the worst, is my twin sister. Zola.”

   “Really?” he asks, clearly surprised. “Why is she the worst?”

   “Well… Ehehehe.” I run a hand through my hair, still wet from the snow, and put my hands on my hips. “I love her, really. She is a cinnamon roll, too cute for words, sometimes. But... How am I going to say this? She’s horrible.”

   “Well, so much for sisterly love.” He smiles like he doesn’t believe a word from what I just said. “Come on, let’s go downstairs. They can’t be worse than my lot.” He starts walking down the stairs, his hands tracing the old stones beside him. I swallow thickly, but follow him downstairs, hoping my friends aren’t there.

   “Jane! You’re here!” someone calls. I tense. _Shit. Chase._ He wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me to the center of the common room, to the table under one of the huge planters hanging from the ceiling. Faye and Skyler are sitting there, along with Kevin and Ryan.

   “You done with your homework?” Faye asks, taking a bite of the chocolate bar in her hand.

   “No,” I say, gesturing to Remus, who is still holding my books and other stuff.

   Skyler’s head shoots up. “Who’s that?” she asks, leaning forward and placing her elbows on the dark wood of the table.

   I hesitate. “Nobody,” I finally say. They know too much about him without meeting him in real life, mostly because of my stories, but he doesn’t have to know that. I nod to the couch in front of the raging fire. “Come on.” When we’re both settled, Faye stands up and walks over to us.

   “So this is Remus?” she questions, whispering in my ear. I nod. “You’re right, he is cute.”

   I choke on air. “Shut up,” I mumble when I’m done coughing. “You don’t want to cross that line.”

   “What line?” Remus asks, a slight smirk on his face. He lifts his quill and writes down the number one without even looking at me.  

   _Shit. He heard us._ “Nothing,” I say out loud, waving Skyler away with my hand. I turn around to Remus. “Just… nothing. So. Question one. We’re not going really fast, are we?” He doesn’t answer. When I look up at him, he’s looking at the table where my so-called friends are having a conversation, frowning “Remus? What’s going on?”

   “I thought I heard my name.”

   “Really?”

   He frowns and looks back at his parchment. “Yeah. But maybe I didn’t. Let’s do this.”

   “Wait.”

   “What now?”

   “Some music.”

   He puts his quill on the parchment. “Music? How are you going to do that, Janie?” He looks around. “Really, how? It’s not like you got a radio or something here.”

   “I don’t need a radio.” I slid my hand in my pocket and wiggle my phone out of there. Holding it between two fingers, I wiggle my phone in front of his face. “We have this.” He frowns again. I smile mischievously and search through my songs. “You’re going to like this one,” I say eventually.

   “Which one?” He leans closer and puts his chin on my shoulder. “ _Heroes_?”

   “Yeah. Listen.”

  
   Don't tell the gods I left a mess  
   I can't undo what has been done  
   Let's run for cover

_What if I'm the only hero left_   
_You better fire off your gun_   
_Once and forever_

_He said go dry your eyes_   
_And live your life like there is no tomorrow son_   
_And tell the others_   
_To go sing it like a hummingbird_   
_The greatest anthem ever heard_

_We are the heroes of our time  
   But we're dancing with the demons in our minds _

_The crickets sing a song for you_   
_Don't say a word don't make a sound_   
_It's life's creation_

_I make worms turn into butterflies_   
_Wake up and turn this world around_   
_In appreciation_

_He said I never left your side_   
_When you were lost I followed right behind_   
_Was your foundation_

_We are the heroes_

  
   “Nice,” he says finally, when the song has ended. “But we still have to do homework.”

   “Sorry.” I put the song on repeat and throw my phone on the couch.

   “You don’t have to apologise.” He smiles fondly and places his hand on mine. A jolt of electricity travels through my body and I pull my hand away at first, but pretend it’s just to grab his better. His hand is warm, like a small heater.

   “I know the first one.” He pulls away his hand, a slight smirk on his face, and picks up his quill.    “That’s the sentence in the book. We just have to copy it.”

   “Remus?”

   He writes down the sentence and looks up, his eyebrows arched. “Yeah, Janie?”

   “My hands are cold.” I slide towards him and put my head on his shoulder. “You have to warm them up.”

   He bursts out laughing. “I have to?” I give a small nod. “As you say, ma’am. But how are we going to write then, huh?”

   “You’re a wizard. You’ll figure something out.” A few minutes later, our homework is done and taken care for. “How long do we have before dinner?” I ask.

   Remus looks at his watch, golden with a platina edge. “Half an hour.”

   “Bonita!” My head shoots up. My twin sister comes running down the stairs and gives me a hug. Then she sees Remus. “So this is Remus?” she asks. I nod. “You’re right, he is handsome,” she smirks and walks away.

   “What?”

   I swallow thickly and refuse to look at him, my face is probably as red as a tomato. “I told you she’s horrible.” _Do I have to say that I’ve never said that or not?  Isn’t it clear then that I_ did _say it?_

“Yeah... right. You know,” Remus says, quickly changing the topic of conversation, “last night I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t sleep afterwards, so I’m beat right now.”

   I frown. “Why couldn’t you sleep?”

   “Sirius,” Remus groans, as if that explain everything. Which, to be honest, it kind of does. “He thought it was funny to pull a prank on all of us. Well, mostly James, but it ultimately affected everyone. He placed a spell on James, so that he woke up floating near the ceiling.”

   “What?” I burst out laughing. And I’m not the only one. Remus’s story seems to have caught the attention of Zola, who comes walking to our place on the couch.

   “And you couldn’t sleep because of that, because…?” Zola asks, falling on the lazy chair next to the couch.

   Remus grins. “James started screaming when he woke up, waking everyone in a one-mile radius. And then he almost killed Pads. I mean, Sirius. He nearly killed _Sirius._ ”

   “We know who Pads is,” Zola states, leaning forwards and placing her elbows on her thighs. “It’s not really hard to figure out your nicknames. But, how late was that? We heard some commotion too, right, Jane?”

   “Yeah. Like… around 4 a.m.? Something like that? Or later?” I look at my sister, who looks to be thinking hard, but I know she isn’t. She’s only pretending so she’s able to look serious. Without that façade, she would probably be grinning like a lunatic. She loves pranks and would probably love to prank Sirius. And she loves the idea of me having a boyfriend. You know, we are two of the model students of Hogwarts, but we both love to just be ourselves when we’re done with homework and no-one is looking.

   “No idea, Jane,” Zola says, “I’m not a living clock.”

   “Unfortunately,” I mumble under my breath. However, it is still too loud, because Zola tickles me in retaliation before continuing our conversation without missing a beat.

   “Well, I’m off. I’m going to the Great Hall. You coming too?”

   Remus and I exchange a look. “Yeah, sure. Come on.”

   “Great. To my… friends,” he says, hesitating a little between the words ‘my’ and ‘friends’. “Acquaintances.”

   Zola nods enthusiastically. “Yes, obviously, come on!”

   “She is crazy,” I stage-whisper in Remus’ ear, dragging out the vocal.

   He grins and stands up. “I understood that reference,” he whispers in mine. He pokes in my side and walks to the portrait hole. Zola wiggles her eyebrows and I groan, covering my face with my hand. Zola slides her arm around my waist and starts humming a cheesy love song.

   We walk ahead of Remus when she whispers in my ear, “He _definitely_ likes you.”  I just roll my eyes, but a warm feeling spreads through my chest.

   “Oh, come _on_ , you madman, let’s get real. That’s not going to happen, dork.”

   “Oh, I like that, I’m a dorky madman. It’s _totally_ going to happen, sis. Just you wait and see.” We climb the stairs, Zola almost unnoticeably swaying her hips a little (mostly because I would have to start doing the same), leaning on me for support, her arm now over my shoulder. When we get to the last step, Zola’s feet catches on the stone and she falls forward.


	2. Zola

My foot catches on the last step and I stumble forward, directly into a broad and clearly well-toned chest. I feel strong arms wrapping around me and holding me up, so I’m not in a hurry to stand on my own feet again. I hurry to apologise anyway, regardless of the fact that I’m still clinging to my saviour’s shirt. 

   “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” I look up to see a very handsome face, going perfectly with his body. “Well, hello there.” The smirk that appears on the guy’s face is probably an exact copy of my own. I hear a small cough behind me and I finally, reluctantly, untangle myself from the guy in front of me. When I turn around, I see both Remus and Jane smirking.

   “Zola, meet Sirius,” Remus says and I turn around so fast it should have caused a whiplash. 

   “You’re Sirius?” Sirius nods and my grin gets even broader. I throw an arm over his shoulder and begin steering him towards the Great Hall. “Well, I must congratulate you on the prank you pulled on James last night. From what Remus told me, I’m sorry I missed it.” 

   Sirius wraps an arm around my waist as if we’ve been friends for ages and starts talking about the prank animatedly. “I don’t know what Remus told you, but it was brilliant. One of my best pranks yet. I used to pull kind of mean pranks, but I’ve decided that I don’t want to become a bully, so I changed tactics. My new motto is: ‘Confuse, don’t abuse.’” 

   I nod approvingly. “I like it. So, what was it like to hear your best friend scream?” 

   Sirius starts laughing at the memory. “It was hilarious. He totally screams like a girl! I’ve never heard him make such a high pitched sound before. Needless to say, I couldn’t keep from laughing, thusly informing James of who pulled the prank.” We have arrived at the Gryffindor table and sit down with two people who I assume are the rest of the Marauders. He gallantly offers him a place next to his place and doesn’t let go of me before he’s ensured himself that I’m not falling over again. James and Peter are looking at us curiously. 

   “Hey Sirius, who’s your friend?” James asks, nodding at Remus and Jane, who are walking to the Hufflepuff table to talk with Jane’s friends. 

   I hold out my hand to introduce myself. “I’m Zola. You’re James, I presume? Don’t look so surprised, you have quite the reputation, you know.” James shrugs, as if to say: ‘You have a point there.’ “Now, a little birdie told me that it was you causing all the ruckus last night. Is it true you screamed like a girl? Can you do it again?” Sirius bursts out laughing and claps me on the shoulder. My pleasant grin morphs into a smirk as James groans and Peter gniffles. 

   “Damn it, not another Sirius, I can’t handle that. Don’t tell me you also pull pranks, please?” 

   “Occasionally,” I say. “But don't worry, I tend to stick to Sirius's new motto: confuse, don't abuse. Just having fun, really.” James looks a bit relieved, but doesn't entirely seem to believe what I’m saying. I suddenly think of the ideal prank to pull on Sirius and I quickly excuse myself. “Well guys, while this has been fun, I have some very important business to attend to.”

   “Aah, why?” Sirius whines, dragging out the vowel. “What are you up to?” I shake my head, stand up and have to sit down again. I curse under my breath. Sirius immediately seems to want to start fussing over me, but apparently doesn't dare to touch me. “Are you okay? What's wrong?” he asks instead worriedly.

   “It’s nothing really. I’ve got this problem with my knees, so sometimes walking hurts. It's infuriating, really. I mean, I just want to run around the halls and the grounds, and I can't. That's also why I basically clung to you like a lifeline just now.” I try again, and though I don't have to sit down immediately, I know the stairs will be hell. However, I like to think of myself of a strong, independent woman, so I don't ask for help. As it turns out, I don't have to.

   Sirius also stands up and offers his arm without even asking if I need his help. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, guys. Don't go anywhere.” I only just catch the smirks on James and Peter's face before I’m turned around and led out of the Great Hall. The entire way to the Hufflepuff common room we talk about the pranks we’ve both pulled and a bit about school. When we arrive at the door to my quarters, I pull Sirius close before letting go of his arm.

   “I know you're curious about what my sudden hurry and I only have one thing to say,” I whisper in his ear. “Just wait and you’ll see.” I lean back and smirk, muttering the password under my breath and climbing into the common room, leaving a speechless Sirius behind.

 

   I immediately set to work. I know I’ll probably need the help of Jane, but I can at least start on my own. When I was talking about my (or actually Sirius’s) new motto, I got the best idea ever. I am going to leave tiny origami animals with a message on them all over Sirius’s dorm. I’ll start out slow. A swan in his bag, one in his hair, some in his room. It is going to be awesome. Now, what is the message going to be? It shouldn’t immediately tell him who it’s from, but I do want him to know it’s me eventually.  _ Hmm, difficult _ . As I’m thinking about the perfect message, someone places their hands over my eyes. 

   “Guess who?” I hear. I chuckle.

   “Oh my, whoever could it be? Is it… Faye?” I ask.

   “Nope!” 

   “Is it… Skyler?”

   “No, last chance.”

   “Well, then it has to be… Jane!” I turn around and hug her without giving her the time to react. I pull her over the back of the couch and we start giggling, lying in a tangled heap of limbs. 

   “So, why did you leave the Great Hall in such a hurry? I thought you wouldn’t be here, considering who you left with…” Jane smirks and I lightly swat her. 

   “No, you perv, I had an idea. I’m going to prank Sirius.” 

   “Oooh, do tell.”

   “So, I’m going to leave all these tiny origami swans all over the place. It’s going to confuse the hell out of him and it’ll be hilarious. I just need a message to give him through the swans. It can’t be too clingy, but he needs to find out it’s me eventually. That’s where I need you.”

   “You want me to write a message?” Jane asks a bit incredulously. “Well, I think I can manage that very important task.” 

   I clap my hands excitedly. “Great! Now I just need a way to quickly fold a lot of origami swans…”

   “That shouldn't be too hard, either. If we go to the library, I’m sure there will a book with a spell to quickly multiply something.” As it turns out, we both finished our homework, so we immediately leave, barely able to keep from running in our enthusiasm. Well, my enthusiasm. I have always been able to pull people along in plans they don't necessarily feel the need to partake in. It isn't long before Jane finds a promising book and we take a seat at one of the tables. “Alright, let's see,” Jane says and starts leafing through the book. “Ah, I think this could be useful. It says here that if you cast  _ Geminio _ , an object will keep multiplying until the caster of the spell puts a hold on it. That way, we’ll have to cast it only once to create a lot of swans. The copies will fall apart eventually, however, so they can't be used for a very long time.”

   I shrug. “That's fine. Depending on the message, it will probably take about a week and we can always keep the original copy. If I decide I want the message to exist for much longer, I can always fold a few swans on my own.” Satisfied with this new information and a freshly formed plan in our minds, Jane and I leave the library again. We have decided that the prank will take 8 days in total, starting out slow and building up to the big finale. The only thing that is left is informing Remus of the prank so he can keep us posted on Sirius’s reaction. I can’t wait to start tomorrow.

   The first day is a relatively easy one. The only swan I’ll be placing will be one swan in his bag. It will only read the word: ‘Hey’. If it doesn’t leave him confused, he will at least think it’s amusing, which is kind of the purpose, so that’s fine. To make sure he doesn’t throw it away, I will write ‘Don’t throw me away, you might need me’ underneath the first word in a small font. After sending the swan away with directions, Jane and I practically skip to my first class of the day, Herbology, with the Gryffindors. Unsurprisingly (and entirely according to plan), Jane immediately leaves me to stand with Remus and starts explaining the plan in hushed tones. I smile when I see Sirius, still completely unaware of what will happen in the next days, and I walk over to stand next to him.  

   “So, did you prepare for class today?” I ask in my most teacher like voice. 

   He arches an eyebrow and leans forward. “Did you?” he whispers softly. 

   “Of course. Have you gone mad? I am one of the Rames’s, we  _ always  _ do our homework, you nitwit.” 

   “Ah, one of those model students, aren’t you? You don’t even step out of line, always-”

“You clearly don’t know me and my sister. Mostly me, but still. Jane and I get into trouble all the time, we just manage to cute our way out of it most of the time. It does help to make your homework regularly, of course. You have to be the model student the first few lessons of the year, then you can do whatever you want the rest of the year. Trade secret.” 

   Sirius tapped the side of his head. “Smart,” he says, “too bad it’s five years late for me to be a model student the first few days.” 

   I chuckle. “Well, never too late to start now. I’m sure you could easily talk your way to the good side of the professors.” 

   “Probably.” He shrugs. “But I would have to feel up to that. And mostly, I don’t. Don’t think it’s going to work that way, huh?” 

   I boop his nose. “No, you moron. Of course that won’t work.” 

   Before we can continue our conversation, professor Sprout starts her lesson. I don’t really pay attention. When we have to grab our ear muffs, I suddenly see the swan I sent out this morning flying into my own bag instead of Sirius’s. I have to suppress the urge to facepalm and rather smoothly reach for my bag, which is lying next to Sirius’s. Leaning forward, too lazy to stand up, I pluck the origami animal from my bag and drop it in Sirius’s. 

   Sirius grabs my wrist. “What do you think you’re doing?” he asks, so soft only I can hear. His hot breath tickles the skin of my neck. 

   “Nothing. I needed my ear muffs.” I point at my pair lying next to our bags. 

   He lightly squints his eyes, clearly not believing me entirely. “Of course, Zola.  _ Of course. _ ”

   “Yes,  _ of course.  _ That’s what I wanted to do, nitwit,” I throw back at him, ignoring my reddening cheeks.  _ Okay, don’t let anything on now, or the entire prank can’t continue. _ I swiftly set to work and change our subject of conversation. The entire class passes without any further incident and when all the other classes have ended as well, Jane and I quickly return to our dormitory,  anxiously awaiting Remus’s note. When it finally comes, we are not disappointed. 

_ He was appropriately confused. I laughed so hard I had to leave the room. _

   
Days pass. Every day, I put more and more swans in Sirius’s bag, in his room, I send them flying to the Great Hall, I put them in his hair without him noticing. Every day, Remus writes us notes to tell how it went and what Sirius’s reaction was. Apparently, he’s not surprised anymore when they arrive and he’s even waiting for the next part of the message. Today is the big day! On this last day of the prank, the eighth day, he will find two swans in his bag and at least 125 in his room. They will cover everything and it will be amazing. So far, the message he has received reads: 'Hey, become my fellow prankster, please, please.’ Only the last please and my name are left. 

   It seems to take forever for this day to end. After dinner, when Jane, Faye, Skyler, and I are lying on our beds in our dorm, still waiting for the daily update on our pranks to arrive, we are shaken by loud crashing noises coming from the common room. 

   I look at Jane, raising an eyebrow. She shrugs, but before she answer my silent question, a voice travels up the stairs. 

   “Zola, get your ass down here right this instant!”

   My face splits into a huge grin. “Sirius,” Jane and I say at the same time. While Jane stays behind to explain everything to our friends, I rush down the stairs. My entrance is not as smooth as I would have hoped, however, because my knees buckle under me at the last step and I would have fallen down flat on my face, if it weren't for the strong arms waiting to catch me. I immediately hug Sirius before standing on my own feet again. I put on the most serious face I can muster. “So, we meet again,” I say. 

   Sirius snorts and I can't help but laughing too. 

   “Did you like our little prank?” I ask curiously. 

   Sirius nods his head, a smile firmly in place on his face. “I must admit, I have never been more confused in my life than in the first days of receiving those little swans. How did you manage to make that many of them?” He asks incredulously.

   I smirk mischievously. “Magic,” is my only explanation. 

   He rolls his eyes. “Of course…”

   I suddenly realise he hasn't answered my question yet. Nervously biting my lip, I ask the life changing question. (Over dramatic much…) “So, yes or no?”

   “I think,” Sirius says with a smirk, “you would be a valuable contribution to my pranks. I would very much like to continue as a team from now on.”

   I beam and grab his arm, dragging him out of the Hufflepuff dorms. “Great! Now, I was thinking about this really funny prank…”


	3. Jane

I pull out my wallet and zip it open. “How much?” I ask, my eyes not leaving the money inside. When I want to pull out a note, however, Remus snatches the leather purse out of my hands and throws it in his bag. 

   “No way you’re going to pay for that,” he says, pulling out his own wallet and slamming some notes on the counter, rather harshly, actually. “Keep the change,” he adds finally. He grabs our stuff from the damaged wood and puts it in his bag. 

   “That wood can break, you know,” I say when we’re standing outside, in front of the shop. “It didn’t look that strong.” 

   Remus shrugs. “We’re wizards, Janie. We can fix anything with just a flick of a hand. Or wand, actually.” He inhales deeply, a peaceful smile on his face. The tangled mess of scars on his cheeks and nose look even whiter in the freshly fallen snow.  “Nothing better than escaping school because we need to go shopping, right?” 

   I smile. One of the huge advantages of being a Prefect is that we can go to Hogsmeade whenever we want. We just have to ask McGonagall or Sprout and they give us permission to go. In this case, we needed parchment and ink. We write too much, others would say. We only do all of our homework, though. “Can I get my wallet back, or…?” 

   He shakes his head. “Nope. Not today. At least not till we get back to the castle. I am going to make sure you’re not going to buy anything. You deserve a few gifts after all those months of being a Prefect and patrolling with me.” He winks at me, that adorable, incredibly irritating wink of his. “And more than office supplies. Where do you want to go next?” 

   “Well, if you put it that way, okay then. I guess.” I try to hold back a smile. “Can we go and have ice-cream?” 

   He arches an eyebrow. “Maybe this wasn’t as good an idea as I thought. Why would you want ice-cream?” he asks, adjusting my scarf and pulling the zipper of my jacket up to make sure I’m not cold. “You should take better care of yourself. It’s the middle of winter, you cute moron.” 

   I suck in my breath. “I have never tasted wizard ice-cream,” I say, hoping he will not notice my reddening cheeks. 

   He starts to laugh. “There isn’t such a thing as ‘wizard ice-cream’,” he explains, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “But if you really want to have it, we will get it. Come on.  _ The Three Broomsticks  _ should still have some.” 

   Inside, he orders two of his favourite ice-cream flavours and lets me have a taste of both of them before he says I have to choose. “Butterbeer,” I say without hesitation, extending my hands. “Give it to me. Mama needs her candy.” 

   Remus shakes his head, a smile on his face, but he gives me the cup and a spoon. “So, you’re muggle-born, right?” he asks when he has eaten half of his ice-cream. “I’m a half-blood. My dad is a wizard.” 

   “Really?” I lean forward and put another spoonful of ice-cream in my mouth. “What does he do?” 

   “He is a trader,” Remus answers. “Specialized in magical creatures.” 

   “You think he could get me a unicorn?” I ask playfully. “They’re amazing.” 

   He bursts out laughing, making a few customers turning around to look what’s so funny. “They’re protected too, I fear. He probably hasn’t got enough influence to get that done. Sorry. But enough about me-”

   “I asked  _ one  _ question. And not about you, about your dad.” 

   He puts his spoon in my mouth to shut me up. “Anyhow, where do you want to go next? We have the whole afternoon. Do you need anything special? Maybe we can find it here. Some of the things we need aren’t available in normal London.” 

   “As you’ve taken me out here to give me anything I want, I don’t want to buy anything I  _ need, _ ” I say when I can talk again (which is only after he has taken his spoon out of my mouth). I lean against the wall behind me and close my eyes. “First, I’m out of reading material. Second, I want a notebook to write ideas in, or to clear my head in.” A wicked smile appears on my face. “And I want new shoes. The ones that come with the uniform are horrible.” 

   “New shoes?” 

   I peck his cheek, something I’ve done a million of times, but still gets him flustered. “Don’t sound so shocked, Moony.” He scowls when he hears his nickname. “They’re just shoes. And I promise I’m not like any other girl when it comes to shopping. I’m easily satisfied. Worry about the books. You know I can take eternity making a choice.” I shrug and take a bite of the frozen water in front of me. “But it’s necessary. You know that too, don’t you?” 

   It takes the whole afternoon and the best part of the evening for us to come back to the castle. My bag is full of presents. A few books, a few notebooks, and the most beautiful pair of shoes from the whole of Hogsmeade, all of them paid for by Remus Lupin. Inside the castle, he walks me to the portrait hole of Hufflepuff and gives me my wallet back.

   “Thanks,” I giggle. “Now I can buy my own stuff again.” 

   “You’re welcome,” he answers, bowing a little. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Sleep well.” He hesitates, but presses a kiss on my cheek and turns around to go to his own house. I, on my turn, turn around too and whisper the password.

   “ _ Password is not correct, _ ” the portrait answers.  _ What?!  _ I say the words again, but the portrait won’t budge. It stays closed. I curse loudly. 

   “Janie?” Remus asks. “Is something wrong?” 

   Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have spoken that loudly. “I er… don’t know the password, apparently.” 

   “Apparently?” 

   “Well, I thought I knew it, but that stupid portrait won’t budge. It must have been changed while we were out today.” I turn and try the password again, speaking a bit frantically. The person on the portrait shakes their head and waves with their hand, gesturing for me to leave. My jaw drops and I turn around defeatedly, cursing under my breath. 

   “Where the hell am I going to sleep now?” I scream-whisper. “I have nowhere to go. Literally. If someone catches me sleeping outside my dorm, I’m dead.” 

   Remus taps his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds before he speaks up. “A bit over dramatic, don’t you think? You can always sleep on the common room couch in the Gryffindor Tower, if you want,” he offers. “It’s not ideal, but better than nothing.”  

   “Really?” I ask hopefully. “Would you do that for me?” 

   He smiles. “Of course. Come on.” 

 

A few minutes later we’re in the Gryffindor common room. Remus grabs a pillow and a blanket and puts them on the couch. “There you go. If you need anything, I’m in the fourth room when you walk up the left staircase. Don’t-” He interrupts himself by pulling me closer and wrapping his arms around my waist. I feel how all his muscles tense up. “Just don’t wake my friends up when you come in. My bed is the first one on your right,” he whispers in my ear. “You can come by anytime you want.” 

   I frown.  “Okay… I guess. What’s wrong? You look a bit tensed.” 

   “Don’t turn around.” 

   “Why not? Is there a monster?” I ask jokingly, repeating his words from two weeks before. 

   “A few.” 

   “I wanna see.” I wriggle myself around in Remus’s arms. My breath hitches in my throat. I stumble backwards and Remus has just enough time to put a over my mouth before I start screaming. With his other arm, he pulls me closer and lulls me back and forth. 

   “It’s okay, it’s just an Invisibility Cloak,” he whispers in my ear repeatedly. “They’re crazy, I told you. They think this is funny.”  

   I front of me are two heads, hanging in the sky. Literally, only the heads. Grinning and smiling, mirth reflecting in their eyes, their hair tangled and messy. I bite my lip and try to steady my breath. “Who are  _ that? _ ” I ask, my voice steadily becoming louder and louder. 

   Remus turns me around and sets me down on the couch, hiding the offending heads from view. He turns around and starts scream-whispering to James and Peter. “Have you gone nuts? This is not the way to greet new people into our group! You could have given her a heart attack!” 

   Peter looks at him a bit sheepishly, but James just waves his friend away and sits down on the end of the couch. 

   “Who’s this anyway, Moony?” Peter asks, a shy smile on his face.

   “Is this the girl you’re always talking about? You didn’t say she’s beautiful,” James pipes up. He turns to me. “I swear, we started to think you were  _ our  _ girlfriend, not just  _ his. _ ”

__ I don't know what to say. “I- I am not his- I’m not his girlfriend.”

   James arches an eyebrow. “Really? You would think, after the amount of shit we’ve heard from Remus, you were.” He wants to say more, but Remus claps his hand over his best friend’s mouth and shushes him. 

   “Could you shut up? You just scared the living daylights out of her and now you’re practically forcing her into something she clearly doesn’t want. Show a little respect, will you?” 

   James finally seems to take the hint and he motions for Peter to follow him. “Really, who are you? And why are you here this late? Shouldn't you be in your dorm right now?”

   “I’m Jane,” I manage to say. “And the password has changed. I can’t get in, all of the sudden. Remus offered me to sleep here.”

   James smirks. “I bet he didn’t mind asking that.”

   “Prongs, shut up,” Remus hisses. 

   “Anyway,” James continues without hesitation, “We can’t sleep,” he gestures to Peter and himself, “So we were wondering when Moony would come back so we could play truth or dare.”

   “Again?” Remus asks. “ _ Why?”  _

   “Because now we have a girl in our midst who probably has to tell a few things.” James eyes are twinkling. “Mooooom, pleeeaaase?” 

   I don’t know why I say yes. I probably could’ve said no and go to sleep, but something in me says I need to do this.

   “If you want to sleep, that’s okay,” Remus whispers in my ear, almost pleading, while James rambles about everything and nothing. 

   “Nah, I’m fine. But I am cold.” 

   “Do you want to borrow a sweater?” he asks. 

   “Really? That would be great, actually.” I smile at him, my arms wrapped around my torso. “If that's okay, of course.”

   “Eh! Lovebirds! We got questions to ask!” James calls. Remus sighs, says he will be right back and walks up the staircase. I smile and sit down on the couch. James immediately leans towards me and puts his chin on his hands. “Soooo,” he says. “What’s up between you two?” 

   “What?” I ask. My voice skips. 

   “Come on,” Peter says. “It’s obvious you like each other. Don’t you see how he looks at you?” 

   “How?”

   “Really? You don’t? He-” James starts, but then Remus walks in. James immediately sits up straight. “Moony! Join us!” he says, a huge smirk smile on his face, his arms stretched out. He gestures for his friend to sit next to me on the couch. Remus frowns, but sits down and hands me the sweater. 

   “It probably is too large, but it is the smallest one I could find,” he says. When my eyes meet his, he smiles and looks away, gesturing for me to try it on. He is right, it is huge. But when I slip it over my head, it is warm, cozy, comfy, anything I want and more. “James, this was your idea, you get the ask the first question.” 

   An even huger smile appears on James’s face when he looks at me. “Jane, truth or dare?” 

_ I’m gonna regret this.  _ “Truth.” 

   “Do you like someone?” 

_ Shit. Of course he would immediately ask that. What was I thinking, saying yes to truth or dare?  _ “Er… No…?” 

   James throws an unimpressed look in my direction. “Really…? You like no-one?”

   “Nope,” I say, popping the ‘p’ to fake confidence. My cheeks grow warmer and warmer with the second.  _ Please, let no-one notice. Please. _

   James shruggs. “Well, I guess we’ll have to disappoint Moony then…” 

_ “Prongs!”  _ Remus hisses. 

   “What? You said I had to ask a question. I did, didn’t I? I did exactly as I was told. You should be proud of me, for once.” He leans back in his chair and runs a hand through his hair. “Moony?” 

   “What?” Remus spits. 

   James smirks. “Truth or dare?” 

   “No, no, no, Jane is supposed to ask a question-” Somehow it hurts when he doesn’t use the nickname. 

   “Truth of dare?” 

   “But-”

_ “Truth or dare?” _

   Remus groans. “Fine! Dare.” 

   “Snog her,” both James and Peter demand. 

   I choke on air. Remus pets my back until I stop coughing and looks at James and Remus like he wants to kill them, which he probably does. “You’ve  _ got  _ to be kidding me.” 

   “Nope,” they echo my earlier statement. 

   “Again, you’re pressuring her into something she doesn’t want,” Remus says, in the same tone you would use to explain something to a little kid. I swallow harsly. Okay, he really doesn’t want this. I was a fool to even think he would like me back. 

   “Alright then, ask her on a date,” Peter offers. 

   “To what end? We go to Hogsmeade all the time. That’s like… the only place you can have a real date.” Remus opens and closes his hands a few times before looking at James, anger filling his eyes. “I don’t know  _ what  _ you want to accomplish with this, but-”

   “Just snog her already, stupid!” Peter calls out. “We know you both want it, just  _ do  _ it!”  

   Remus turns to me. “I’m so sorry. I can just-”

   “No, it’s fine. Really, it is. I-I mean… If you…”  _ What the hell am I going to say next? Huh?   _ “I mean, if y-you d-don’t…” I stammer. He starts to smile. Running a hand through his hair, he leans forward and cups my face with his big, rough, warm hands, softly capturing my lips with his. He pulls me on his lap, one knee of either side of his thighs, his hand on my hips, deepening the kiss like nothing else matters in the world but this. I wrap my arms around his neck, mostly because it feels right. I really don’t know what I’m doing, actually, but I can feel Remus’s rapid heartbeat through his sweater as he deepens the kiss once again, my hands in his soft hair. 

   A small cough can be heard from beside us. “Guys,” James says, “I really appreciate you coming together at last, but there are kids here.” He covers Peter’s eyes with his hand.

   “Iew! Gross!” Peter pipes up, playing his part perfectly. 

   Remus and I start giggling and I climb off his lap after a reluctant pout form Remus. “So, Hogsmeade next Saturday?” he asks softly, grinning like a madman.


	4. Zola

It has been a few weeks since Remus and Jane had gotten together and Sirius and I started pranking together. After a few week of relentless teasing, the newness of their relationship has worn off, so they are mostly left in peace. However, I couldn’t resist to give Remus The Speech.

   “I swear, if you hurt her, I will rip your intestines out.” 

   Remus only assured me that had no intentions of doing that, not ever. That didn’t mean I didn’t shoot glares at him everytime he got close to Jane. But, after a few weeks of just cute moments and a very happy Jane, I decided to give Remus a chance, for now… 

   However, normal life continues, so Jane and I are studying in the library, writing a paper. The hardest part of the stupid assignment is the creative part. Not that I’m not creative, all my inspiration just seems to fly out of the window the moment I need it for an assignment. 

   I groan dramatically and drop my head on the table. “Okay,” I say to no-one in particular, “I need to write an essay on Elemental Runes… Which I’m gonna call…” 

   “GHOSTBUSTERS!” Jane suddenly yells from the other side of the table, working on exercises for Herbology. Remus, who was holding her hand, tracing the lines on her skin, startles. 

   I look at her in confusion for a second before my brain catches up on what my sister is saying. I burst out laughing. It takes five minutes for us to breath normally again. “However tempting that idea is, I don’t think it will be very much appreciated,” I say finally, still catching my breath. Jane is still laughing, her head against Remus chest to muffle the sound. He shakes his head and puts an arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss on the crown of her head.  _ They’re too cute.  _ When I look next to me, though, I just see a confused look on Sirius’s face. 

   “Have you gone mad?” Sirius asks.

   I lean closer conspiratorially and smile mischievously. “Didn’t you hear? I sold my brains yesterday. It’s really weird. I woke up, and turned out to be married to a pineapple. An _ ugly _ pineapple, but I loved him…” I sighed, mockingly wistfully. 

   “I understood that reference,” Jane says, trying to pay attention to her exercises in front of her, wiggling her quill between her fingers, pursing her lips. 

   “I understood  _ that  _ reference,” I answer, pointing at her and dissolving into a fit of giggles.

   “He who hesitates…” 

   I snap my fingers and point at her again. “Disintegrates!”

   “Is this what a normal conversation between the two of you is like?” Sirius asks.

   “Yes. Why do you ask?” I throw back at him. He looks at Remus desperately, looking for support from his friend. Remus just shrugs in a way that says, ‘I don’t know either, just let them be.’

   I groan. “How am I ever to going to get anything done? My mind keeps feeding me distractions.”

   “I thought you sold your brain,” Sirius says nonchalantly, flipping the page of his book like he is actually  _ reading  _ it.   

   “Hm, true. I guess the sawdust replacing it is full of distractions, then.” I determinedly snap my book shut and start pushing all my stuff in my bag. 

   “What are you doing?” Sirius asks, his eyebrows furrowed. “I thought we were going to homework. This paper is due-”

   “In a week, nitwit. I don’t  _ feel  _ like doing homework today, so I  _ won’t  _ do homework today, whether you like it or not.” Sighing, I walk over to the closest window and place my hand on the ice-cold glass. “I just wish I could go outside, to clear my head and work of some of this extra energy.” 

   “Well, why don’t you?” Sirius asks, coming to stand next to me. 

   In response, I point at my godforsaken knees. “The same reason I so gracefully dropped into your arms twice.” 

   “Did you mind it that much?” 

_ Shit.  _ My cheeks flush a crimson red.  _ How in hell am I going to respond to this? I- I- I- AHH! Okay, just be your sassy self. How am I going to do that?  _ My brain short circuits. “I- It was nice not to hit the ground, yes.”  _ Really? That is even worse than ‘you’re better at amputations’!!!!  _

   Sirius snorts and shakes his head. “Well, I’m sure something can be arranged. Would it help to clear your head if you’re carried around too?” 

   I look at him incredulously. “You… are going to carry me?”

   “No, the unicorns on Jane’s slippers will, of course it would be me!” 

   I consider his offer for a moment. In the last weeks, I have come to appreciate his company more and more and eventually these feelings morphed into real feelings. His offer would enable me to inconspicuously get close to him and maybe...

   But… It’s Sirius  _ Black.  _ The hugest player of Hogwarts. Do I really want this?   _ Yes _ , a small voice in the back of my mind whispers.  _ Go for it! _

   “Okay,” I say quickly before I can change my mind. 

   Sirius beams. “Cool.” He stuffs all of his books in his bag and slings his and my bag over his shoulder. 

   I look at the bags sceptically. “How are you going to carry me like that?” I ask.

   He smirks and walks to where I’m still standing next to the window. “Easy,” he says. “I like to think I’m strong enough to carry a petite woman.” Before I can react, he wraps an arm around my shoulder and shoves the other behind my knees, lifting me up bridal style.

   I blush fiercely. “Of course you would go for this,” I mutter softly. Other than a chuckle, there is no reaction. 

   He carries me out of the library and walks down the stairs, pushing the doors to the white, glinstering grounds open with the tip of his shoe. Outside, the world is as white as can be, everything covered in a thin layer of frozen water. The benches, the grass, Hagrid’s cabin, all are just big white forms, devoid from all details. “I think winter is my favourite season,” Sirius says, rudely disrupting the silence. 

   “Shh.” I place a finger on his lips. “Don’t talk. Walk.”

   “You know I could easily drop you anytime I want, right?”

   “Like you would.”

   And he lets go of me. It doesn’t hurt much because of the snow, that’s not the problem. It’s the principle of it!

   “Hey!”

   Sirius grins. “What?” he asks coyly. “I  _ did  _ warn you,  _ nitwit _ . You shouldn’t provoke me like that if you don’t want it to happen.”

   Sighing heavily, I push myself up with my arms. The snow is freezing cold. “Really? You’re that easily provoked? Then you probably deserve it, arse.”

   Maybe I need to learn to keep my mouth shut, because Pads makes a snowball and throws it in my face. “Zola, Zola, Zola.” He sighs mockingly. “Didn’t I say you shouldn’t provoke me,” he says. He crouches beside me and smiles, wiping the snow from my cheeks. Finally, he boops my nose. “Shouldn’t.” He drops next to me in the snow and together we look out over the grounds. 

   “Hmm, I might have to agree with you about the winter. The view certainly is nice like this,” I say. He hums in agreement. “What I don’t like, however,” I continue, “is the cold. It makes the pain in my knees worse and it’s uncomfortable. Oh! But that’s a good excuse to curl up in front of the fire and drink cocoa, read a book and snuggle up to random unsuspecting people.”

   “You really do that?” Sirius asks, laughing unbelievingly. 

   “Nah, mostly I just attack my friends or my sister, but I have had to suppress the urge more than once.”

   “Wow, you’re really strange, do you know that?” Sirius asks and I gasp mockingly.

   I ruffle his hair, making him splutter in protest, before I push my hands deep into my cloak again, trying to warm them a bit. “I’m not strange, I’m fabulously weird.”

   Sirius lightly pulls my hands out of my cloak and warms them in both of his own. We sit like that for a while, perfectly content to just sit in the beautiful landscape and be in each other’s presence. The silence is once more rudely interrupted by a voices sounding suspiciously like Remus and Jane’s. 

   “Hey Sirius, duck!”

   Sirius doesn’t react fast enough, so a snowball hits the back of Sirius’s head, causing him to drop drop my hands and jump up from the ground in surprise. There’s snow everywhere, wettening his soft, shining, raven hair and seeping through his clothes. He tenses for a second before drops to ground again behind my back, quickly using me as a human shield, causing the next snowball to hit me in the chest.

   “You jerk!” I scream, mostly at Sirius, but another voice replies.

   “Bitch!” Jane yells back. “Moose!”

   “Squirrel!”

   Sirius looks at me with the same incredulous look as he wore in the library. “Does anyone get this but you two?” he asks.

   “Nope,” I answer. “Come on! You’re not going to let them win, are you? Move it, nitwit.”

   He gasps dramatically. “Don’t you dare call  _ me  _ a nitwit.”

   “Affectionate insults, learn to recognise them.” I scream. “Catch the next one!”

   Rightly predicting he will be too slow to catch the next snowball being thrown to him, Sirius drops to the ground to dodge it. A new snowball flies over our heads. He quickly begins to gather as much snow as he can, creating a small wall. “Lie down behind this, so you won’t be hit. If you make as many snowballs as you can, I will throw them.”

   “Sounds like a plan,” I say, and I immediately set to work. We work hard for the next hour or so, not having any time to analyse the thoughts that course through our heads. Even from behind our tiny fort, I can hear we are winning. I am quickly getting the hang of quickly producing piles of proper snowballs, so Sirius rarely has to wait before he can throw the next one again. Apparently, the other team doesn’t approve of our teamwork.

   “Zola, get your lazy ass out here and join the fight!” I hear Jane call and I chuckle.

   “Nope,” I call back, “disabled person, remember?”

   Even though I can’t see her, I can practically hear her eye-roll that follow my statement. “You can’t use your weak knees for everything, you know?”

   “Like hell I can! Come on, Sirius, we’re very close. Only a few more hits and we’ll win!” 

   Sirius starts throwing snowballs again with renewed vigour and it isn’t long before he breaks through the weak fort Jane and Remus have built. He quickly tackles them and buries them in snow, earning a few screams and hits from Jane and Remus.

   “FINE,” Remus finally shouts. “STOP IT! YOU'VE WON, I ADMIT IT. STOP IT,” he finally shrieks. 

   “YEAH!” Sirius stomps both of his fist in the air and comes running towards our now slightly damaged fort. “We won! Zola, we won, we won we won!” he sings, taking my hands and pulling me up from the bench, dancing on the frozen ground. 

   “Wow wow wow, calm down a bit!” I try to keep standing, fail, and fall down. Jesus, it seems to be a daily business of mine, falling down. It's like my knees just know when I'm happy and want to ruin it.  _ Long live my knees! All hail to my stupid injury! _

   “Zola!” Sirius instantly drops down in the snow again and starts fussing over me. “Are you okay? Are you in pain?” He grabs my hands and pulls them closer to his chest, as if to take my pain (which I don’t have) away.

   “No, I’m fine, really. I just need to do my exercises more regularly, I guess…” 

   Sirius looks relieved at my answer. Even though he doesn’t need to stay close, he doesn’t move away. He looks at our hands, our fingers entangled, and inhales deeply. When he looks up to me, his cheeks are red. Somehow I  _ know  _ it’s not from the cold. 

   “Do you hear that wind howling?” I ask, stupidly enough. 

   Sirius smiles sheepishly. “I could bloody kiss you right now.” He puts his hand under my chin and lifts my head. “You’re bloody gorgeous, you know?” And, finally, he leans forward, softly pressing his lips on mine, making me warmer than I’ve been all afternoon. 

   At first I don't respond, too shocked to react or form any coherent thought. After  few seconds, he pulls away awkwardly. I abruptly jolt out of my surprise and grab his collar with my hands, pulling him closer to me again and deepening the kiss from before. I try not to pay attention to what’s happening around us, but when Jane starts screaming ‘YES!’ and Remus starts catcalling, I can’t help but smile. Sirius puts his hands on the small of my back and pulls me closer, after throwing the snowball in his hand (which has probably turned into ice) in Remus’s general direction. Going by the laughing that follows his action, the snowball didn’t hit his mark, but it does shut Remus and Jane up. 

   “You think I’m bloody?” I ask, grinning and ruining the irritated effect I was going for. “Bloody? That’s really the word you’re going for? You’ve got to do better than that if you want me as your girlfriend, nitwit.” 

   Sirius grins, showing his perfect teeth, his pupils dilated. “I don’t think I have to worry about that, do I?” His face shows all his normal confidence, but a slight tremor in his low, raspy voice betrays his nerves. I cup his face with my hands and press a small kiss on the tip of his nose as my answer. 

   “I’m fucking freezing,” I whisper in his ear. I press my lips on his neck when I see the goosebumps covering his skin. “Can we go inside?” 

   He can barely suppress a breathy moan and I smirk. “Yeah, yeah okay… Let’s do that,” he stutters. He quickly grabs our bags and swings them over his shoulder before lifting me from the ground and carrying me back to the castle.


	5. Jane

Sirius and Zola have been the terror of all professors for around three weeks now. While that is a good thing, unfortunately this also means it’s  _ that _ time of the month again. I swallow the pain killers and look in the mirror, a hand placed on my belly. It’s going to take at least half an hour for the pain killers to start their work, but, knowing my body, the pain is only going to be ‘bearable’ for four hours or so and will I be counting down the minutes before I can take the next badge. I crawl under the covers and pull them up to my chin. A sleepless night, again. Great. 

   Around me, the other girls are vast asleep. They know my periods usually kill me, that I lay awake for nights because of the cramps. They always try to make me feel better. They bring me hot cocoa and a jug, they make sure I have a few more days for most of the homework assignments, they try to make me laugh all the time. It helps a lot, but that’s during the day. At night, it’s a different story. They have told me this afternoon I have to wake them if it gets to much to bear, but I’m not going to do that. They need their rest. I’m not going to take it away from them. 

   I try to read for a while. It is an amazing book, but my eyes slide over the words without processing the information that is given or following the story, so I put it down to read it another time and lay down on my back to just watch at the ceiling. When that also doesn’t help, I push the covers away and walk to the curtains. I slide them open, just a little, so I can watch the beautiful sky. Hundreds of stars, just shining because they can. 

   The moon. Of course. Why haven’t I thought of that before?” 

   I put on my unicorn-slippers I got for my last birthday a few weeks back and walk down the stairs to the common room and start walking towards the Gryffindor Tower. Remus has given me the password for emergencies. Is this the one? I don’t even know.  

 “Alohomora,” I whisper when I’m standing before the right door. Carefully, I push the door open and tiptoe inside. Thank God I know which bed is his, otherwise this could get… awkward. “Remus?” I whisper. I sit down on the side of his bed and touch his shoulder lightly. “Moony?” 

   Groaning, he turns around. He opens his eyes slowly and sits up when he sees it’s me. “Jane? What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”

   “I-I couldn’t sleep,” I say, my voice trembling. “Don’t yell at me.” 

   He puts his finger on my lips and wraps his arms around me. “Shh. I’m not yelling. Why  couldn't you sleep?” I shrug and put a hand on my stomach. He smiles and pulls me closer. He puts his chin on my head and moves to the centre of the bed to make room for me. “Pain killers didn’t work?” 

   I shake my head and inhale deeply, tears running down my cheeks. He gently lulls me back and forth. Strokes my head and back. Presses a kiss on my cheek. Snuggles his face in my neck. “Do you want to stay here?” he whispers. When I nod, he gives me more space to lay down. “Hold on. Be right back.” He rummages in his chest and throws a bundle of fabric on the bed. Then he lays back down. “You want a sweater?” he asks softly, his voice tickling my ear. I nod again. He smiles fondly and helps me to pull it over my head. “There. Just a blanket.” He wraps one around us and lays down. Softly, he presses his lips on mine. “Perfect. And look,” he shows a rectangle that looks suspiciously much like chocolate, “You don’t even have to starve.” He brakes off a piece and gives it to me, but I drop it and squeeze his hand, rather harshly. He clenches his jaws to stay quiet, throws the chocolate away and pulls me closer, a hand on my tummy. “It’s all going to be fine,” he mutters. “Just keep on breathing. Nothing to be worried about. It’ll pass.” 

   “Remus?”

   “Yeah?”

   “I can’t breath.” 

   “Oh. Sorry.” He gives me some room and looks at me, an adoring smile on his face. “Better?” I nod. He presses a kiss on my forehead. “Good. Try to sleep a little. Tomorrow, you’ll feel better.”

 

“Prongs! Wake up! Wormtail! You have to see this!” 

   I wake up with Remus’ arms holding me in place. My head lays on his arm and his steady breathing tickles my neck. When he wakes up too, he pulls me closer still and inhales deeply.

   “Good morning, beautiful,” he mumbles. Suddenly, he tenses. “Padfoot, please tell me you haven’t just made a picture.” It’s quiet for a few seconds. “BLACK!” 

   “What?” Sirius asks innocently. “Who cares? She is your girlfriend, after all. You just looked cute, cuddled up together. You’re going to like how it looks, trust me.” 

   “We’re going to put it in the picture album!” James calls out. 

   “Prongs, you don’t even know what a picture album is,” Remus says, his voice already tired from dealing with his friends this early in the morning. He shakes his head and looks at me. An adoring smile tugs at the corners of his lips. My cheeks redden at the sight. And it’s only  _ that little smile. Only that.  _ How am I going to put up with the rest of him?

   “Guys, look! She’s blushing!” Peter says. I groan, grab a pillow and throw it in their direction. Laughing, they dodge the pillow and walk to their own beds to change. Shaking his head, Remus stands up and pulls his shirt over his head. When he sees me looking, he smiles.

   “Like what you see?” he teases.

   “Of course.” 

   He can’t hold back a chuckle. The rest, who are already done changing, it’s a miracle, walk to the door.

   “Make sure you’re done and dressed before we get back, OK? Oh, and Moony, condoms are in the top drawer.” 

   “PADFOOT!” Remus shouts, but the door has already closed and Sirius runs away laughing. Remus shakes his head and turns to me. “Really, I’m sorry, He is just a git. A stupid, stupid,  _ stupid git. _ ” 

   I reach out to him. He takes my hand. It looks small in his, and my fingers are slimmer. My skin is softer and less scratchier, my nails are done better. But for me, they look perfect together. They just…  _ fit.  _ “Hey,” I say, to get him to look at me. He does, although he takes his time, looking at our hands for a few long seconds. “I knew what I signed up to when we got together. Don’t worry. Trust me, I like it when you frown,” I trace the wrinkles on his forehead with my fingers, “but I like your smile even more. Pwease?” I ask, pouting.

   That makes a small smile appear on his face. “Fine. But I’m still gonna kill him the next time I see him.” 

   “Just so you know, if you get send to Azkaban because of it, I’m not going to be there.” 

   “What happened to the ‘I love you’ from yesterday?”  

   “I never said that.” 

   “Well, you thought it. You had to. I was being the perfect boyfriend,” he teases. I haven’t heard that tone in weeks, not since we officially got together. It finally feels like we’re good again. Not those awkward silences, not those stolen glances in the hallways without having the courage to really talk to each other. I smirk, my eyes twinkling in the morning sunlight.

   “Don’t get cocky with me now, sir. You know I’m just as smart as you. Maybe even smart _ er. _ ” 

   He gasps mockingly and places a hand on his (still bare, he must be freezing) chest. “And I can’t be cocky with you?”

   “No.”

   “Why not?” 

   “Because I am a girl. Seriously, sometimes I think your brains are smaller than those of a chicken. This is, like, the most basic knowledge you ever need to know. The girl has privileges.” 

   “You read too much about princes on white horses.” 

   I throw his pillow at him. 

   Laughing, he dodges it. He climbs on the bed and hovers above me, his hands on either side of my head, a big smirk appearing on his face when he sees my cheeks reddening. He gives me a kiss, a really, really,  _ really  _ hot kiss….

   …. and sits up straight. “Breakfast?” he asks. 

   I’m tempted to throw another pillow at him, but I’m out. “ _ Fine _ ,” I spit at him instead, pushing him off me. “Jerk,” I mutter under my breath, standing up from the high bed and yanking down his sweater, so it looks like I’m wearing a dress with a legging.  

   He wraps his arms around my waist and puts his chin on my shoulder. “Bitch. I know Supernatural too, you know.” 

   I decide to ignore him. “I don’t have shoes.” 

   “You want me to carry you to breakfast?” 

   “Yes.” 

   He looks at me like I’m crazy. “That was a joke.”

   “Too bad.” I spread my arms. “Come on.” 

 

The looks my friends’ faces when Remus sets me down on a bench next to the Hufflepuff table and presses a kiss on my forehead, turning away for his own table, are priceless. It takes them at least two minutes to recover from the shock.

   “What was  _ that _ ?” Kevin asks. “Have I gone crazy overnight?” 

   “Where were you?” Skyler demands. She has a sandwich in her hands and waves it in my general direction. “You were gone this morning. If you decide to visit your _boyfriend_ overnight you might as well write a note to tell us. You scared the living shit out of us.” 

   “That’s not possible,” I say, taking a sandwich for myself.

   “Wait, you were with him all night?” Ryan asks now, still a bit in shock. When I give a small nod, his jaw drops. “ _ What happened? _ ”

   “I’m not going to tell you.” 

   “Yes, you are,” Chase resolves. “You definitely are. You owe us that much.” 

   “He offered me chocolate. Gave me his sweater,” I say, taking a bite from my sandwich, secretly loving the fact I have them wrapped around my finger. 

   “ _ And? _ ”

   “I said I didn’t want the chocolate, so he ate it.”  

   Zola (suddenly she’s here too, wow, how did she do that?) grunts. “Noooo, we want  _ details. _ ”

   “What? Nothing happened.” Everyone looks at me skeptically. “What? It’s true. I just crawled under the covers and after he asked why I was there, he just went back to snoring softly.” 

   “He  _ snores _ ? OMG, that’s  _ so  _ cute!” Skyler calls out, making several heads turn our way, so she tones it down a bit the next time she talks. “More details?” 

   “He is like a human heater.” I smile. “His arms are super strong and held me in place when I woke up.” 

   Zola smirks. “Bet you liked that, didn’t you?” 

   I groan, my cheeks flushing a brilliant red. “Zola, I told you before. Not everything has to be made into an innuendo. But yes,” I spit, “I liked it.” 

   Zola huffs. “Of course it does, the world is much funnier with innuendos. But come on, more.” 

   I roll my eyes exasperatedly. “There’s nothing more to tell. No wait,” I point at my twin pointedly, “your boyfriend was being particularly irritating this morning. A bit like you are acting actually…”

   “Well, I’m not surprised. Where do you think he got it from? But what did he say?”

   My cheeks redden even more. “N-nothing,” I manage to say, thinking about what he really said.   _Make sure you’re_ done and dressed _before we get back, OK? Oh, and Moony,_ condoms _are in the top drawer._

__ “Nothing?” Chase snorts. “Right. You wouldn’t be as red if nothing  _ had  _ happened.” 

   “Ooh, I bet he said something inappropriate, didn’t he?” Zola asks. “Wait, I can just ask him myself, of course.”

   “NO! Fine, I’ll tell you. Geez.” 

   “I wouldn’t mind asking-”

   “You’re  _ not  _ asking him that.” I sigh. “He said, ‘Make sure you’re done and dressed before we get back, OK? Oh, and Moony, condoms are in the top drawer.’ You happy now?” 

   Zola laughs gleefully. “He actually said that? That’s what I told him to say.” She sticks up her thumbs in Sirius’s direction, who is looking at our group confusedly. He smiles anyway and turns back to his own friends.

   If I hadn’t been this irritated, I would have said it was cute, but right now I’m just angry. “You did  _ what? _ ” I hiss. 

   “Well, I didn’t expect that it would happen ‘til, I don’t know, next year or something.” 

   “I really need new friends.” 

   “Hey! How are you going to replace your sister, huh?” 

   “Hmm, that is a problem, but I’ll find a way. I mean, how hard can it be?”

   Zola wacks me on the head. “Very hard, I can tell you that. You would basically have to clone yourself to get another sister,” she says, contemplating the idea and tapping her chin with one finger.

   “Aww, don’t be mad. I still love you,” I say, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. “But expect the same when you and Sirius get close enough. And much,  _ much  _ worse.”  

   Zola shrugs. “Seems fair,” she says, before shoving the last bites of her breakfast in her mouth. “Come on, we have to hurry if we want to be on time for our first lesson,” she says with her mouth full.

   I stand up. “I don’t start till second period. I’m gonna change.” 

   “I bet that’s necessary after the night you’ve had, huh?” Zola laughs as I throw a piece of bread in her general direction. Knowing me, I miss. I absolutely can’t aim properly and she catches the piece of bread after dropping her bag and diving after it. She puts it in her mouth and grabs her bag again, walking out of the Great Hall with a detour to the Gryffindor table. I shake my head and turn around, walking to the Hufflepuff common room. When I’m almost there, I bump into Darren. 

   “Sorry,” I murmur, not really looking at his face. 

   “Jane, wait.” He grabs my wrist and turns my around. “I’ve been meaning to tell you… Are you a magicien? Because whenever I look at you, everything else disappears.” 

   I narrow my eyes. “I have a boyfriend, Darren.” 

   “You look like the girl who could use two.”

   “THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?!” Remus shouts, suddenly standing behind us.  _ Oh boy.  _ Remus throws Darren against the wall and holds him there with his feet floating above the floor, his hand on Darren’s throat, effectively closing his windpipe. “She is  _ mine. _ ”

   “Er… Remus?” 

   He turns his head to look at me, still holding Darren a few inches from the ground. He conveniently ignores the strangled noises coming from the offending boy. “Yes, sweetheart?” 

   “Maybe you should… I don’t know, make sure you don’t kill the guy?”

   “Oh, sure, thanks.” He lets go of Darren and the guy rubs the red marks on his neck. Remus isn’t done yet, however, because he grabs the front of his shirt. “Don’t think you’ll get away with this this easily. The next time you lay a hand on my girl, you’ll be dead.” 


	6. Zola

Everything has gone just fine for the entire day. Of course, climbing stairs is a hell, as always, and wobbly knees when I stand up from my chair are nothing new. But that my knees randomly can’t hold up my weight anymore in the middle of the day after Ancient Runes and that I can’t get up from the floor from where I have fallen down, is weird. That usually doesn’t happen. As I start gathering my books from where they have fallen around me, hurried footsteps come my way.

   “Zola!” James, who only takes Ancient Runes to be able to get the job of his dreams, has jumped from his chair and runs to where I am sitting in my pile of books, Remus only a few steps behind him. They each situate themselves on one side of me and grab an arm, helping me up from the floor.

   “What happened?” Remus asks, concern lacing his voice. They help me sit down on my desk and I wave his concern away. I shake my head to say it’s nothing to worry about, but they stay where they are. “What’s wrong?” he asks again. “We promised Padfoot to keep an eye on you, but we can’t do that if you don’t let us help you.” 

   I frown in irritation. If my knees hadn’t hurt so damn much, I would have walked towards him and clipped him on the head. “Why would you have to keep an eye on me? I’m not a child anymore.” 

   James shrugs. “You know him. Pads is always scared something will happen to you. He won’t even let you climb the stairs if he isn’t there to catch you.” 

   I sigh dramatically and roll my eyes. James is right and I know it. Ever since I fell down the stairs to the Great Hall -  _ not  _ my fault, I repeat,  _ not _ my fault, Sirius hasn’t allowed me to walk down a flight of stairs on my own. It’s kind of sweet, but a bit smothering, sometimes. “Come on, just hurry up. We have to get to DADA.” James and Remus, however, just fold their arms in front of their chests, not moving an inch. “Guys? Are we leaving or what? I don’t want to be late.  _ Again _ .” 

   “We are going to take you to the infirmary,” James states resolutely.

   “What? Why?” I groan. “I’m doing fine.”

   “Says the one who just fell to the floor and couldn’t get up without help,” Remus counters. “I’m sure no-one will get angry with us because of taking care of ourselves. Can you walk on your own?”

   “Of course,” I say, but the moment I take a small step forwards, my knees can’t carry the weight of my body and I’m only held up by Remus and James, who both grab onto one of my arms again.

   “Whether you want to or not,” Remus said, gently guiding me towards the hallway, “we are going to the infirmary. Besides,” he smirks, “it’s not like you’ll get very far on your own anyway, so I would say you don’t have much of a choice.”

   “Ugh. Fine. Just make sure it doesn’t take too long. I don’t want to miss any more classes than I already have.” That, as it turns out, is a lost cause, because the infirmary is at the other side of the castle. How am I supposed to go to the infirmary, get my knees checked and walk to the DADA classroom without missing anything? That’s just impossible. It takes us half an hour to even reach the infirmary and we have to wait for another few minutes for Madam Pomfrey to finish helping another student. James and Remus have put me on an empty bed and have started rehearsing the learning material for our next test. 

   Madam Pomfrey walks our way after five minutes and they put their books away. “What’s wrong?” she asks kindly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

   “There’s nothing  _ wrong _ ,” I say for the hundredth time that hour. I point at James and Remus. “Those two nitwits over there,” I throw a mocking glare in their direction, “abducted me and brought me here. I’m just fine.” I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and try to stand up, but hey, the gods must hate me, because I immediately fall to the ground again. Madam Pomfrey’s eyes widen comically and if the situation had allowed it, I would have laughed at the sight. She immediately starts fussing over me, but interrupts her administrations to order Remus and James around.

   “Mister Lupin, please go and look for mister Black. I think he will want to be here and we could use the help. Mister Potter, help me to get Zola sitting on the bed again.” Remus runs out of the infirmary in search for Sirius and James lifts me from the floor. After a few minutes in which Madam Pomfrey looks at my knees, the doors of the room are thrown open and Sirius comes stumbling in, an exhausted Remus following a few moments later. 

   “Padfoot,” he pants, “slow down, she isn’t dying.” 

   Sirius fixes him with an angry glare. For a moment there, I think he is going to hit his friend in the face, but he turns around and grabs my hand instead. “Angel, please tell me you’re okay.” 

   I smile at the nickname, rolling my eyes. “Sirius, I’m fine. My knees just decided to stop working, so that I can’t walk for the moment. That’s all, really.” 

   He huffs a bit irritatedly. “You can’t walk anymore? Do you even hear what you are saying? You are  _ not _ fine.”

   “Mister Black,” Madam Pomfrey interrupts, “I trust you to be strong enough to carry Zola to her next lesson and everywhere else she needs to be today,” 

   Sirius looks at her with a look of surprise on his face. “Why?” 

   Madam Pomfrey throws him a look that screams:  _ that’s a stupid question, a very stupid question... _ “Her knees aren’t strong enough right now to support her own weight. She will have to attend all her classes, though, because she isn’t actually sick. Can you three take care of this task?” she asks. James and Remus nod and both grab a part of my stuff. Sirius brushes my hair out of my face and smiles before placing an arm under my knees and the other around my shoulders. Slowly, he lifts me off the bed.

   “Am I heavy?” I asks with a coy smile on my face. 

   Sirius throws me up in the air a tiny bit to get a better grip. “Heavier than you look.” 

   James looks at him, mockingly shocked. “Pads, that’s the worst pick-up line I’ve ever heard.” 

   I burst out laughing. “Well, it’s a good thing he doesn’t really need a cheesy pick-up line anymore, huh?” I boop his nose with my finger. “Come on, Pads! I want to miss as little as possible from DADA!” 

   Sirius’s face clouds over. “But that’s on the other side of the castle.”

   “Well, good work-out, I would say,” I whisper in his ear. A shiver runs through his body. I drop a kiss on his cheek and smirk. “Or is the great Sirius Orion Black too weak to carry a girl?”

   “And not just any girl,” James adds. “ _ His  _ girl, isn’t that right, Pads?”

   “You’re damn right she is,” Sirius says proudly and he strides out of the infirmary, while Madam Pomfrey just shakes her head exasperatedly. The four of them chatter all the way to the DADA classroom. Sirius is sweating lightly by the time they arrive, but doesn’t ask for help and simply places me in the nearest empty chair he sees. 

   A small cough can be heard from the front of the classroom. “Miss Rames, mister Black, if you could be so kind as to explain your tardiness and your presence in my classroom respectively?”

   James and Peter are entering the classroom too by now, but Sirius heads them no mind when he explains their current situation. “Well, there is a perfectly logical explanation for all of this. You see, Zola here has weak knees, resulting in her not being able to stand properly. James and Peter, being good friends, brought her to the infirmary, but since she’s not actually sick, she’s still supposed to attend all of her classes.”

   The professor nods. “That explains why you’re all late, I guess, but it doesn’t explain your presence in my classroom,” she says, albeit clearly irritably. 

   I turn slightly in my chair to face Sirius. “I take it you’re really good friends?” I ask sarcastically, smirking. 

   “Shh,” Sirius shushes me, explaining in hushed tones. “I may have pranked her earlier in the year, so now she only allows me in her presence when that is strictly necessary.” When he continues, his voice is normal again and directed towards the professor. “I was so kind as to bring my girlfriend to her lesson, ma’am. Since my presence here is clearly unwanted, I will leave now. Zola, wait after your lesson for me to pick you up, okay?” I nod and after Sirius’s rather dramatic exit, the lesson continues as always. 

 

That night, after being carried around by Sirius the entire day, we’ve finally settled in the Hufflepuff common room. Sirius and I have taken up Wizard’s Chess, because Sirius insisted it was the best game ever invented. I still suck at it, but he always seems to be having a good time, so I don’t mind losing virtually every game we play. We are seated in a comfortable silence in the window sill, the chess board between us. I have been staring at the game for a few minutes when I suddenly see what can be a good move. Hesitantly, I move one of my pieces and I look at Sirius. He is pretending to be baffled by my apparently good move, but I see right through him. This doesn’t make me feel less triumphant when he admits his defeat. I stomp my fist in the air.

   “Yes!” I yell. “I won! Beat that, man!” I laugh freely and walk to the side of the board where Sirius is sitting. I kiss him to celebrate my victory, but before he can reciprocate, I pull away, whispering in his ear. “Don’t think I don’t know you let me win, though…”

   Sirius looks mockingly affronted. “I did no such thing,” he says, placing a hand on his chest as if to swear he didn’t. 

   I just snort and kiss him again. “Let’s go sit in front of the fire, warmth is good for my knees and I want to talk with my friends.”

   Without asking, Sirius swipes me up and carries me to the couch, where he puts me down in the corner before stretching out on the rest of the couch and placing his head in my lap. While I talk idly with Jane, Skyler, Kevin, Faye, Ryan, and Chase, I can feel Sirius’s breathing evening out until he falls asleep entirely. Apparently the others notice too, so everyone turns towards me and looks at me expectantly. 

   “Uhmm,” I say intelligently, “is there something on my face or something?”

   “Okay, spill it. We want to hear everything,” Jane says, using my own words from breakfast this morning against me. 

   “About what? The way we made passionate love all over the kitchen last night?” Everyone gasps and I giggle. “Pff, you actually believed that? No, no juicy details for now…”

   Jane taps her chin thoughtfully. “Well, tell us about how he is as a boyfriend then? Like, is he a complete gentleman all the time? Or does he act like a bad boy?”

   “Hmm, I guess both. Just, I’m the only one he acts as a gentleman with. To everyone else he acts like a bad boy.” I lightly stroke through his shiny, black hair (it’s so freaking soft) with my right hand, making sure not to wake him up. “I guess what just happened is a good example… We were playing Wizard’s Chess and he let me win, just to see me smile. He’s really sweet.” I smile like a lovesick fool just thinking about Sirius.

   “Ahww, cinnamon roll. What more?” 

   I roll my eyes at my twin’s questions. 

   “I really need to know.”

   “What? Please elaborate…” I say dryly. 

   “How it feels when he kisses you.” 

   My eyes begin to twinkle. “That… Is the best feeling in the world.” 

   Before I can tell more details, however, Kevin, Ryan, and Chase get up and make their way to their room. “Alright, we’re out. I don’t need that many details…”

   “I mean,” Jane continues when they’re gone, “Is he rough or sweet?” 

   “Well, that depends on the mood… Sometimes it’s just a quick and hard kiss between lessons, but when we have all the time in the world, he’s really gentle,” I say, giggling. “But I’m not gonna tell you any more, it’s kind of private, you know…” My friends start whining, but after a firm ‘no’, they let it rest. Since it’s already gotten late, the girls get up to go to our rooms. I look down at my boyfriend fondly, but when I’m moving in to wake him up with a kiss, he turns his head around and looks right at me with very awake eyes. I curse under my breath. “Hey, hon, how long have you been awake?” I ask tentivaly.

   “Oh, I heard everything,” Sirius says with a smirk.

   “ _ Damn _ .” I cover my face with my free hand, not willing to get my other hand out of his hair yet. 

   “I thought it was sweet, bragging about your boyfriend to your friends,” Sirius states casually.

   “You do?”

   Sirius nods. 

   “Oh, thank fuck.” Sirius snorts at my cursing and pulls me in for a long, sweet kiss. Since we are the only ones left in the common room, we stay right where we are the couch, cuddling until it becomes too late even for us to stay up any longer.  


End file.
